Foreword

As the Associate Head of School (Teaching and Learning) in Deakin’s School of Education, it has been a great privilege to support the creative initiative of a talented colleague in Dr Rebecca Cairns and her pre-service teachers in EHI702 Senior History Curriculum Inquiry to see the publication of this valuable resource Historical thinking for senior secondary students: A collection of teaching and learning activities as an Open Educational Resource (OER).

The very nature of this publication seeks to promote developing skills in ‘historical thinking’ and, at this very moment in our contemporary history, I find myself doing a little ‘historical thinking’ as the education sector continues to grapple with the ramifications (both known and unknown) of the COVID-19 global pandemic.  The challenges the last two years has presented to many educators has been profound, and access to resources that help in everyday practices become incredibly valuable as we are all stretched, with the time available to invest in creative classroom practice somewhat scarce.  This collection shares practical and innovative teaching and learning activities that can be applied to range of diverse history classrooms in ways that are aligned with, and support student learning in, senior secondary History Curriculum.  In reviewing the range of practices outlined within this resource, I reflect on how valuable a resource such as this might have been as I grappled for ‘new ideas’ in my own teaching of senior secondary curriculum in Victoria (in a different subject area).

Developed through a ‘renewable assignment’ concept, our talented pre-service teachers demonstrate the ways in which authentic approaches to assessment have utility now for pre-service and graduate teachers in their practice, but also into the future and beyond the initial audience as the task itself is shared with members of the History teaching community through a publicly available and openly licensed source.  The resource demonstrates the immense power of teacher collaboration across career stages and provides innovative solutions to the curriculum ‘problems of practice’, issues and needs facing senior secondary History teachers in their current practice.

Associate Professor Amanda Mooney

Associate Head of School (Teaching and Learning)

School of Education

Deakin University